We
thank you for the love and compassion you show to us, accepting us and caring
for us, no matter how much we fail to live up to your hopes for us.

We
thank you for the gift of Jesus, who came as one of us, to show us your love,
and to teach us how to love our neighbours, to show us how to be a part of your
Kingdom.

We
thank you for the gift of your Spirit who walks with us day by day, never
leaving us to face the challenges and choices of life alone, who reminds us of
your love, and inspires us to reflect your love in our love for others.

We
confess the times we have failed to show compassion,

The
times we didn’t even try to forgive those who hurt us,

The
times when we saw our neighbour’s need and decided it wasn’t our problem,

The
times when we allowed ourselves to be hardened because caring can hurt and can
cost too much.

Teach
us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength,

and to love one another as you have loved us.

In
Jesus’ name we pray,

Amen

Declaration of forgiveness

The
truth and the promise of the Gospel is this

Jesus
came into the world for ordinary, sinful people such as us,

So I
have confidence to say to you:

Our
sins are forgiven!

Thanks
be to God.

Hymn Together in Song 236 Jesus’ hands were kind
hands

Hymn Together in Song 690 Beauty for Brokenness

Scripture

Galatians 6: 1-16

Luke 10:1-11 and 16-20

Sermon

When you go to a group of
people and they don’t accept you, just walk away.Don’t post nasty things about them on social
media, or try to force them to see the world exactly the same way you do, or
set up a lobby group to try to get them kicked out of the country, just leave
and let them be.Wipe the dust off your
feet and go somewhere else.

When you go to people who will
accept you, stay among them. Live in their culture, eat the same food they do.
Heal their sick. Care for them. Care particularly for those who are in need.
Then proclaim the Kingdom of God has come near.

“The
Kingdom of God”, or “The Kingdom of Heaven”; was something Jesus talked about constantly.I know there’s a modern cultural idea that
Heaven is where good people go when they die.The way Jesus talked about it, however, you could see, that to him, “The
Kingdom of Heaven” is more than just pie in the sky when you die.

In
Jesus’ teaching, and in the life he modelled during his time sharing our human
life, the Kingdom of Heaven was something concrete, real, as much “here and
now” as “eternally”.

You
want to see the Reign of God?Don’t
wait, become a citizen now.

We
are a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, when we love our neighbor, when we forgive
those who have hurt us, when we pray for people who persecute us, when we heal
the sick, feed the hungry, help the poor out of poverty, when we care about
people even if their lives are totally different from our own. Basically we are
living in the Kingdom of Heaven when we live the life that Jesus spent his
earthly ministry teaching us to live: when we show compassion.

As
you know, our winter huddles have been huddling over many aspects of the
spiritual life Jesus modelled.This
week’s topic has been compassion.Compassion means “feeling with” someone.It’s about actually trying to understand things from their perspective,
and caring about them.Another term for
the same thing could be love.

It
breaks my heart when people who claim to represent Christians can then support
the mistreatment of people from marginalized groups, when they justify this on
the basis of judging other people’s sins, or that they are of the wrong
faith.I can’t see how anyone can read
the gospels and think that is what Jesus intended for us to do.

Jesus
loves sinners.How much of his limited
time in earthly ministry did he spend dining with the good Pharisees?How much with the sinners, prostitutes,
corrupt tax collectors?

Jesus
loves people who are from different cultures, and Jesus loves people who love
others.The Centurian who loved his
servant enough to belittle himself and seek help from a wandering preacher from
a subject people, was met with compassion from Jesus.

Jesus
loves people who don’t believe in and don’t like him: on the cross, he prayed
forgiveness for those who killed him.

To
live in the Kingdom of God doesn’t require us to judge who is in and who is
out.Just to determine that we will
love, and have compassion on everyone, regardless. There’s no option to decide
we won’t care about the needs of the sinners or the needs of the people who
have a different culture. If God places us in a position where we have the
opportunity to show compassion to another person, then that is what we are to
do.

There’s
a stark difference between the Kingdom that Jesus sent the 70 (or 72 depending
on which ancient manuscript your translation of the Bible used as a source) to
proclaim, and the geo-political kingdoms of the world.We’ve just had a two-month election campaign
to remind us, in case we forgot.

Earthly,
geo-political nations do work on an in or out basis.That’s why we have border protection.They work a lot on selfishness and fear.We limit migration because we don’t want
“them” to have what “we” have.That’s
why we need our borders protected from people who come to us seeking help.

The
Kingdom of Heaven shows compassion, seeks to heal the sick, care for the poor,
provide for the needy.

The
geo-political nation clamps down on disability pensions because pensioners are
a burden on the economy, argues about what will happen with medicare, and wants
growth, growth and more growth, because there’s no limit to the greed and the
urge to have more and more and more.

The
currency of the geo-political nation is money, and people are expected to seek
to get more and more and more.The currency of the Kingdom of Heaven is
love, and its citizens seek to give
more and more and more.(Since money is
based on things like work, minerals, and crops; and love is something that
comes directly from God, only one of those is actually unlimited, and sustainable
for eternity.)

Of
course, we can’t opt out of the political system.We all had to vote. And the best any of us
can do is vote for whichever party we see at the time as coming closest to our
actual values. Any two people might
start with the same set of values and vote for two different political parties,
because they will all support some of what we believe is right, and some of
what we believe is wrong.There’s no
party that’s actually cornered the market on compassion.In the heat of an adversarial election
campaign, it sometimes seems that no party has any interest in compassion, but
hopefully that’s not completely true.It’s
just that the values of the world, really are not completely in line with the
kingdom, and while we have to live with a foot in both camps, we have to deal
with the tension.

And
there really is a tension. Think about the wars that Australia’s involved in
that no-one wins or loses, they just go on and on and on.Do we as a nation love our enemies?Can we even imagine what that would look
like? Do we even love the people fleeing our enemies enough to help them get to
safety?

We
have to accept that life in the Kingdom of Heaven will sometimes have a sense
of dissonance with life in the world around us. When we notice that dissonance,
and have to choose one over another, choosing compassion is always the best
option.It’s what Jesus would recommend.

Hymn Together in Song 537 Let us talents and
tongues employ

Service of Holy Communion(UIW2 p163ff)

Hymn and offeringTogether in Song 697 All the sleepy should
have a place to sleep

Offering prayer

What’s God doing among us?

Prayers of the people

Loving
God,

Yesterday,
we elected a government,

Some
of us may be pleased with the result,

Some
of us may be disappointed,

However
we feel, we pray that all those elected will carry out their work with wisdom
and integrity, and with the utmost compassion for the people affected by their
decisions

(from
What God’s doing among us…)

We
pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

Benediction

Go
out into the world, care for those in need, and show them God’s love and tell
them the Kingdom of God has come near.

And
grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit be with you always.

Books by Iris, available in Paperback and eBook versions

Patchwork

Patchwork is an anthology of short stories and poems by author and blogger Iris Carden. In this volume, you will deal with the aftermath of a dog bite in Bad Moon Rising, spend a sleepless night with The Possum in the Roof, and investigate a weird religious cult in The Time of Blood and Death. The print version of the book has a bonus story not in the eBook version.

Beside Still Waters

A book of sermons and brief reflections on Christian Scripture, by Rev Iris Carden. There is no specific order to the items in the book, they are intended to each be a "surprise" in that they are not related to the items around them. It is hoped that in each, the reader will find something new or special, or unexpected, a message from God. Rev Iris Carden has a Master's Degree in Theology and more than 10 years of experience as a Christian minister.

Cat-it-orial

Mr Bumpy is such a talented cat, he even runs his own website: mrbumpycat.com. He is a blogger, and a very bad cat. His favourite hobby is world domination. His next hobby is harassing the humans and other animals he shares a home with. In this book, you can see the world through the eyes of a megalomanicat, and some of the other animals who share his home.

Group Meeting

(Novella) In a facility for people recovering from mental illness: a group of people with sinister pasts starts to be visited by a girl who doesn't exist.

Karlee

Failing author Terry Dixon is made an offer that seems unbelievable. He can have all of his problems solved, have everything he has ever wanted, for a price. The price is something that "will not be too difficult" for him to pay - but it is not specified what it actually will be. With bills mounting up and a deadline looming, Terry agrees to a deal with something he knows nothing about.<

About the Author

Iris Carden is a retired Uniting Church minister and former journalist. Lupus forced her to stop working. On good days she writes.